Buttpack carry

Or fannypack to use the more polite term. Especially in hot weather, it can be one of the best ways to carry a sidearm, but you've got to pick the right one.

'Right one' covers a lot of things. Size, color, and method of draw. Size, big enough to carry your piece and your wallet and/or phone and/or makeup(for the ladies, dammit, shut up) and keys or whatever. And you should use it for things other than your gun; that makes it a bag with stuff in it as opposed to a mostly empty bag that looks kind of heavy. Color because some styles, in the standard black, look like a gun-carrier; change it to yellow or brown or blue and it looks less like one.

Method of draw is what originally made me think seriously on this. I had a small pack I used for a couple of years; the main compartment fit a model 36 snubnose nicely, the smaller pocket carried my wallet & keys. But it was not a gun bag, just a small buttpack, so to get to the weapon you had to grab the zipper pull and pull it all the way across and then reach inside. This came forcefully to mind one evening when a friend and I were going into a bookstore. About halfway across the parking lot a guy started walking toward us. Specifically toward us, not past or near. Without really thinking about it I shifted my angle to put myself between him and my friend and scanned to see if there was anyone else(there wasn't) and, in the midst of this, realized that he was close enough that if he did attack, there was no damn way I could get to the piece before he reached us. Which kicked my mind into 'prepare for combat' mode, which means my body position shifted and I also thought about, if necessary, grabbing my knife(CRKT folder with the clip hooked over my pocket; unopened it stuck out just a touch beyond the outside of my fist, good to strike with). Turned out he was just a panhandler, but this is one of those 'maybe' situations. Maybe he was, and maybe he wasn't; maybe he had other plans but saw the change in my position/movements and changed his mind; who knows?

What I do know is I stopped carrying my piece in that bag, it was just too hard to get to it if you needed it fast. I found a new one. It's bigger(both good & bad), it's brown, it has a holster inside that's held in place with velcro, and the gun compartment has a zipper that runs almost all the way around with a pull tab on the outside on both left & right top corner; set it up for either left- or right-hand draw and you can grab the tab & pull to open it, exposing the grip for your draw. Much faster, and with a good bag of this design it doesn't stand out as a weapon carrier.

One of the things I like about it is that the holster can be set to hold the pistol right-side up or upside-down. May sound strange, but for my manner of carry I prefer the pistols upside-down in a bag like this. I don't like carrying it in front, it's uncomfortable and gets in the way when walking. With it in back, if the piece is right-side up I have to turn my hand palm-backward to draw, with the piece upside-down it's unzip/grab/draw without the twist.

Those are my thoughts on the matter, and how it works for me.